where every baby is welcomed, loved, nurtured, and seen for the amazing, conscious and aware being they are from the beginning of life. As these babies grow, so does their capacity to love, to empathize with others, to be in relationship and to live in joy.
As our first generation matures, we would see the ripple effect grow to encompass greater learning capacity, emotional intelligence and creativity, the emergence of new leaders, and healthier families and communities.
Understanding our earliest relationship experiences from the baby’s point of view and how these experiences set in motion life patterns has been the intense study of the field of prenatal and perinatal psychology for over 40 years. The field uses this lens to focus on our earliest human experience from preconception through baby’s first postnatal year and its role in creating children who thrive and become resilient, loving adults.
Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology incorporates research and clinical experience from leading-edge fields such as epigenetics, biodynamic embryology, infant mental health, attachment, early trauma, developmental neurosciences, consciousness studies and other new sciences.
We offer these 12 principles as a beacon to help guide parenting practice, professional practice, theory and research and to support human potential and optimal relationships from the beginning of life. These principles lay the foundation for a new movement in welcoming and caring for our babies. Everyone has a part to play.
The Association of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health adopted and endorses the 12 Guiding Principles-PPN. www.birthpsychology.com
The primary period for human development occurs from preconception through the first year of postnatal life. This is the time in which vital foundations are established at every level of being: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and relational.
Experiences during this primary period form the blueprint of our core perceptions, belief structures, and ways of being in the world with others and ourselves.
These foundational elements are implicit, observable in newborns, and initiate life-long ways of being.
These core implicit patterns profoundly shape our being in life-enhancing or life-diminishing directions.
Human development is continuous from prenatal to postnatal life. Postnatal patterns build upon earlier prenatal and birth experiences.
Optimal foundations for growth and resiliency, including brain development, emotional intelligence, and self-regulation are predicated upon optimal conditions during the pre-conception period, pregnancy, birth and the first year of life.
Optimal foundations of secure attachment and healthy relationships are predicated upon optimal relationships during the pre-conception period, during pregnancy, the birth experience and the first year of life.
Human beings are conscious, sentient, aware, and possess a sense of Self even during this very early primary period.
We seek ever-increasing states of wholeness and growth through the expression of human life. This innate drive guides and infuses our human development.
From the beginning of life, babies perceive, communicate, and learn, in ways that include an integration of mind-to-mind, energetic, and physical-sensorial capacities and ways of being.
Human development occurs within relationship from the beginning. Human connections and surrounding environment profoundly influence the quality and structure of every aspect of baby’s development.
From the beginning of life, baby experiences and internalizes what mother experiences and feels. Father’s and/or partner’s relationship with mother and baby are integral to optimizing primary foundations for baby.
All relationships and encounters with mother, baby, and father during this primary period affect the quality of life and baby’s foundation. Supportive, loving, and healthy relationships are integral to optimizing primary foundations for baby.
The innate need for security, belonging, love and nurturing, feeling wanted, feeling valued, and being seen as the Self we are is present from the beginning of life. Meeting these needs and providing the right environment supports optimal development.
Babies are continually communicating and seeking connection. Relating and responding to baby in ways that honor their multifaceted capacities for communication supports optimal development and wholeness.
Respecting and optimizing the bond between mother and baby and the mother-baby interconnectedness during pregnancy, birth, and infancy is of highest priority.
Birth and bonding is a critical developmental process for mother, baby, and father/partner that form core patterns with life-long implications.
The best baby and mother outcomes occur when mother feels empowered and supported and the natural process of birth is allowed to unfold with minimal intervention and no interruption in mother-baby connection and physical contact. If any separation of baby from mother occurs, continuity of father’s contact and connection with baby is vital.
Baby responds and thrives best when communicated with directly, when the relationship with mother is undisturbed, and when the process of birth supports baby’s ability to orient and integrate the series of events.
Resolving and healing past and current conflicts, stress, and issues that effect the quality of life for all family members is of highest priority. Doing so before pregnancy is best. When needed, therapeutic support for mother, baby, and father provided as early as possible during this vital primary period is recommended for optimal outcomes.
When unresolved issues remain or less than optimal conditions and experiences occur during conception, pregnancy, birth and the first postnatal year, life diminishing patterns often underlay health issues, stress behaviors, difficulty in self-regulation, attachment, learning, and other disorders over the life-span.
These early diminishing patterns embed below the level of the conscious mind in the implicit memory system, subconscious, and somatic patterns.
Professionals trained in prenatal and perinatal psychology can identify these patterns and support babies, children, parents and adults to heal and shift these primary patterns to more life-enhancing ones at any age.
When parents resolve and heal their own unresolved issues from their child’s pregnancy and birth, their children benefit at any age.
Leading-edge prenatal and perinatal psychology-oriented therapists collaborated in an academic community grant project funded by the Bower Foundation to create the 12 Guiding Principles. Primary authors and project coordinators:
Wendy Anne McCarty, PhD, RN, HNB-BC, DCEP
Co-Founder and Core Faculty, Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology Program, Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. Leader in optimizing human potential and family living from the beginning of life. Global holistic consultant to families and professionals. Presenter, educator, and trainer. Early developmental theorist and author of Welcoming Consciousness as well as over 40 publications.
www.luminousbaby.love
Email Dr. McCarty
Marti Glenn, PhD
Founding President, Santa Barbara Graduate Institute with graduate programs in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology. Clinical Director, Ryzio Institute offering professional trainings and intensive retreats to help adults heal early trauma. A pioneering psychotherapist and educator. Recent recipient of the Verny Lifetime Achievement Award in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology.
www.ryzio.com
Email Dr. Glenn
Simplified Chinese translation by Babel Linguistics Inc (2020). Copyright 2008, 2019, Wendy Anne McCarty & Marti Glenn. All rights reserved. www.12guidingprinciples-ppn.com
The Simplified Chinese translation was financially sponsored and reviewed by Zhouyou (Joy) Xing Skinner, First HypnoBirthing Educator in Beijing China, Certificated PPNE Birth Psychology Educator, Dancing for Birth Practitioner, Reiki Healer, Crystal Healer and GBC Doula.
Email Zhouyou (Joy) Xing Skinner
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